Apple’s App Store has finally given developers the ability to release up to 50 promotional codes for their applications, allowing them distribute their apps to press and friends free of charge directly through the App Store.

This is going to be really, REALLY useful for developers. We’re often asked to test out Apple iPhone apps (and we’re delighted to be asked). Our policy is that we will generally pay for the app ourselves anyway — but promo codes make it all a bit easier.

Jason points out that there are a few teething issues — most notably that developers don’t quite have launch dates for their apps yet.

Excellent evolution. More please.

The phone first aired at CES this year has just been given the release date of March, for Korea. Elsewhere in the world? Your guess is as good as ours, but no holding your breath please.

We‘re unsure as to why we’re showing you this, it’s not to upset you with the unlikely hood that you may never actually see it or just to make you droll over its stunning design.

iRiver’s portfolio of products to date are a little of the beaten track in terms of how they look, which make them stand out from the crowd of drab, run of the mill devices seen around today.

So when we first saw the ‘Wave’ our interest was initially peaked to go so far as to say ‘OooOoOoo, When’s that going to arrive then?’. Sadly all went quiet on the western front, until recently.

Besides being a touch screen phone, they’ve also appeared to have made it a video player extraordinaire. Or a video player first, seeing as they’re well known for them and a phone second – who knows.

It’s a looker definitely, but that’s all we can say at present seeing as its website is in Korean and we’re a little sketchy on that.

What we can make out from the site is that the iRiver Wave has a 3-inch 480 x 272 touch screen, 4GB of storage, WiFi 802.11b/g, Adobe flash support, a media player backing H.264 and OGG, FM tuner, SRS WOW HD, a micro USB port and a microSD slot.

All we can say at this point is, bring it over here iRiver! Let’s try together and Wave goodbye to the iPhone’s world domination.

If you wish to upset yourself further, visit – http://product.iriver.co.kr/p_w10_over.asp

British company Virtuity known for a similar technology on laptops, has developed the BackStopp Mobile software which eviscerates data on a phone if stolen or lost.

If either of those two worst case scenarios come true, the company uses the mobiles own comms to track down said phone anywhere in the world.

When the handset has been discovered, BackStopp deletes all information on the phone wiping it completely clean and removing anything which could be used for duplicitous means.

After the nasty is taken care of, a report is made back to HQ on what exactly has been purged and even the location of the device.

The first run of the software will be around for Windows Mobile devices only, with Nokia Symbian platform being the basis of the next iteration.

BackStopps foundation can be traced back to a similar tool for laptops, where large quantities of sensitive information, both personal and commercial could be used for financial gain if lost or stolen.

This software has just under gone a rather significant upgrade of late with encryption integration, Wireless and RFID integration to boot.

Not a day goes by without someone creating a group on Facebook asking for mobile numbers, as they’ve lost their phone. So it’s about time someone developed a “dial D for detonating of data” on handsets.

No details were available at the time of going to press on the applications cost, but stay tuned to http://www.backstopp.com for more information and updates